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Walter Rosenthal 22July2013 Yiddish Book Center

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Walter Rosenthal 22July2013 Yiddish Book Center

by
Yiddish Book Center (Chad)

Usage
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 InternationalCreative Commons Licensebync
Topics
Yiddish Book Center, National Yiddish Book Center, Wexler Oral History Project, nybc, ybc, Yiddish, Jewish culture, Favorite Yiddish word, Yiddish words, Family history, stories about ancestors, Jewish Identity, Career and Professional Life, Jewish holidays, Transmission, Travel, Wlater Rosenthal, Commack Jewish Center, Plainville Jewish Center
Language
English
Walter Rosenthal, marketing and advertising professional, was interviewed by Lynn Yanis on July 22, 2013 in Amherst, MA.

To learn more about the Wexler Oral History Project, visit: http://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story

To cite this interview: Walter Rosenthal Oral History Interview, interviewed by Lynn Yanis, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, July 22, 2013. Video recording, [https://archive.org/details/WalterRosenthal22july2013YiddishBookCenter] ( [date accessed] )
Abstract
Walter Rosenthal, marketing and advertising professional, was interviewed by Lynn Yanis on July 22, 2013 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. A student of genealogy, he tells stories about how each side of his family came to America. His father was a cab driver in Brooklyn; the family moved every two years during the Depression to save two months' worth of rent. Walter worked as a "turnstile boy" at Ebbets Field and can still recall the entire Brooklyn Dodgers lineup. He talks about Hebrew School and the rabbi's old-fashioned, punitive teaching methods. For a while his father worked for his brother, a furrier in Pennsylvania, but then he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to the Workmen's Circle sanitarium in Liberty, NY. During high school, Walter worked odd jobs and was a busboy and waiter in the Catskills in the summer. Although they lived in non-Jewish neighborhoods, his mother kept kosher and lit Shabbos candles. After high school he attended City College; he planned to go to medical school but did not have the grades. Walter became a biology teacher in a junior high school but did not enjoy teaching at that level nor the paltry salary. He switched to advertising and worked in the women's apparel industry. He ended up getting a PhD at New York University and then taught and served as dean of a business school at a college on Long Island. Although Walter has lived and worked in many non-Jewish environments, he has rarely encountered more than casual antisemitism. He and his wife helped to form Jewish congregations in several Long Island towns where they lived. They kept a kosher home and their children belonged to Young Judea and were bar and bat-mitzvah-ed. Walter is not particularly religious but wanted his children to develop a strong Jewish identity. He is interested in the Bible as a historical document and in Israeli history. He talks about feeling out of place in one daughter's Reconstructionist temple and another's Modern Orthodox one. Although he does not speak Yiddish, his wife does, and they financially support the Yiddish Book Center. He hopes to be able to do so for many years to come.
Addeddate
2014-07-11 14:36:56.180505
Citation
Walter Rosenthal Oral History Interview, interviewed by Lynn Yanis, Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, Karmazin Recording Studio, Yiddish Book Center, July 22, 2013. Video recording, [URL of interview] ( [date accessed] )
Controlled-themes
Favorite Yiddish word | Yiddish words | Family histories | Jewish Identity | Career and professional life | Jewish holidays | Cultural transmission | Travel
Excerpts
2707, 2708, 2709, 2710, 2711, 2712
Identifier
WalterRosenthal22july2013YiddishBookCenter
Interview-date
7/22/2013
Interview-location
Karmazin Recording Studio
Narrator-birth-place
Brooklyn, New York
Narrator-birth-year
1929
Narrator-first-name
Walter
Narrator-last-name
Rosenthal

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